Process of concentrating gases from gaseous mixtures



Sept. 15, 1925; "1,553,731

' J. ALLINGHAM rnocnss OF coucsnrm'rme GASES FROM GASEOUS MIXTURES Filed July 31, 1923 fwl MVE Vfoe Mom? 14. .1. #vqmm heme sea. 15.1925.

the mixture.

UN STATES PATENT O 4 i Joni: or Los menus canmom or concnnrnarme eases non GASEOUB mxrunns;

' Application fled m :1, 1023. serial No. 04.

To all whom concern:

Be it known that L Jorm Annmemu, a subject of the King of England, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Gases from Gaseous Mixtures, of'which the following is a specification. v g l My invention is applicable to the separa tion or concentration rom gaseous mixtures of one or more gases. It is necessa for the operation of the process that the mixture of gases shall contain one or more gases which have a higher ma etic permeability than the remainder of 5:; mixture. J These high permeability gases are acted upon by a magnetic flux so that a concentrati n of these gases occurs in certain arts of the apparatus, this concentration ing later followed by the separation of the concentrated por-- tion of the mixture from the remainder of My invention is particularly applicable-to the concentration of oxy en from air, and although the process may applied to other types of mixture for the purpose of separating other gases or mixtures of gases, 1 shall for the purpose of illustration confine the following specification to one embodiment of the invention, namely, the concentration of 0 gen from air. a

t is a well known fact that the air is a Y gaseous mixture containing oxygen, nitrogen p This is truenot'only in sary, an tion of air.

and other gases. Air is used in combustion with many substances in variousarts. In such combustion and in many chemical uses to which air is applied, only the oxygen: is utilized, the nitrogen being generally merely an inert diluting agent which tends to retard the combustion or-other reaction, and to reduce the speed and'economy of the process. processesi-n which the. air is used directly as an agent for combustion, but is true in many other commercial rocesses in which oxygen is neceslIl There are at' present in use several processes by which oxygenmay be isolated in various degrees of. purity,and the-commercial 0 gen so produced, finds a large commercia use in many ways. Oxygen is produced, for example,

iquefaction' rocess, and also by electrolysis. Oxygen pr uced-by any of -the present well Process of Concentrating limits,

.which'it is supplied by the addithe so-called FFICE.

known processes is, however, too e nsive It is an ob 'ect o my invention to provide a. method 0 commercially separating the oxygen from the nitrogen of the air, either for the purpose of producing commercial oxygen as now understood, or for producing a mixture richer in 0 en than ordinary air. The degree of enrichment can be controlled by my process within considerable the amount'ofoxygen in the mixture being simply, a fimction of expense, so that where a slight concentration of oxygen is suflicient it can be produced cheaply, greater concentration being obtained at greater expense.

A further object of my invention is to provide a process mm a gaseous mixture which will simple apparatus and which will tremely cheap to operate.

Further objects and vadvantages will be. made evidenthereinafter. It is a well known fact that the magnetic permeability of elements varies widely. Inasmuch as the permeability of iron is many times that of most other elements, we are accustomed to think of iron as a magnetic material and of other substances as nonmagnetic. It is, however, well known that there are many other substances which show a measurable magnetic permeability. The magnetic permeability of oxygen is considerabl greater than the magnetic permeas bility a? nitrogen, so thatoxygen tends to move into. a strong magnetic field and to displace the nitrogen therefrom.

ile my invention may be carried on by employ be ex:

various sorts of apparatus, that shown in the plane represented of apparatus shown, which is largely diagrammatic and shown for illus trative purposes only, I provide concentra Fig. 1 is a side elevaof concentrating oxygen greater with the parama Q nets-1a? tors 11, each of which is formed of a tight shell having a partition 12 therein. The partition ,12 has a central opening 13 normally closed by a check valve 14, this valve allowing gases to pass from an oxygen chamber 15 inside the shell 11 below'the partition 12 into a nitrogen chamber 16 inside the shell 11 above the partition 12, but preventing any gases from passing downwardly through the opening 13 from the chamber 16 into the chamber 15. Situated in the chamber 15 and preferably wound on a fiber spool 19 is a magnetizing coil 17 which is fed by electric current from a battery 18 or from any other convenient source of power. Filling the bore of the spool 16 and extending over the ends of that spool is a body of material 20, which, for convenience, we will designate as paramagnetic material, that is to say, material which has a higher magnetic permeability than air. This paramagnetic material is closely spaced so that the aces therebetween into which air may be rawn are very small. The presence of this material has the efiect of reinforcing the magnetic field, in view of the fact that the condensation "of the lines of force is much etic material present than if this materi were removed. This condition of the magnetic field, which I prefer to designate for the p of 'patentable distinction as reinforc is as just mentioned, the direct result of the presence of what is conveniently designated as paramagnetic material. It may be iron filings or it may be some other paramagnetic material. Air is admitted to the chamber 15 through an ionizing chamber 25 in which is placed an ionizing source 26. The so ply of air to the chamber 25 is controlled by valves 27. The material supplied to the pipe 28 may be air in its natural stateor it may consist of any mixture containing oxygen. In practice the pipe 28 may be supplied with a mixture 0 oxygen and other gases in which the oxygen content has already been' increased by the use of my process or by any other convenient means. A vacuum pump 30 is provided which draws gas through pipes 31-and valves 32 from the nitrogen chamber 16, delivering this gas under atmospheric or a higher pressure to a depleted mixture tank 33. An oxygen vacuum pum 35 is also provided which draws gases t ugh pipes 36 and valves 37 from the chamber 15, this oxygen mixture or enriched mixture being delivered to an enriched mixture tank 40 under atmospheric or a higher pressure.

The method of operation of my invention is as follows: The vaives 27 and 3? being closed, the chambers 15 and 16 are partially exhausted of air or other gas by the pump The V valve 32 is then closed and the valve 27 opened slightly and air or a previously enriched mixture of air and oxy is allowed to flow from the pipe 28 into e chamber 25 where the air or mixture expands.

In the chamber 25 it' is subjected to the action of the ionizing source 26. This may be a source of ultra-violet rays, or may consist of means for producing a high voltage silent brush electric discharge, or any method of producing ionizing action. It is possible that this ionizing source roduces ozone which may be in itself of big or magnetic permeability than nitrogen.

Owing to the intense magnetic field set u by the coil 17, lines of force pass throng the paramagnetic material as shown in Fig.

4, in which 41, 2 and 43 are successive par-' ticles of paramagnetic material in'one of these lines of force. It is necessary for them lines of force to jump across small gaps between successive particles of the P 8 from the particle 41 to the particle 42, or. from the particle 42 to the particle 43. The

highly concentrated magnetic fields between the particles act upon the oxygen which, therefore, moves into the space between the particles, displacing the nitrogen which has a lower magnetic permeability. The magnetic field, therefore, tends to hold a cons'iderable portion of the oxygen molecules, the nitrogen molecules passing freely on through t e check valve 14 into the space 16. The result is that the gaseous mixture in the space 16 contains a larger portion of nitron than the ordinary gaseous mixture deetic material, as for example,

livered to the pipe 28, or, what is the same thing, is deficient in oxygen. Due to the admission of gas into the concentrator, the v pressure rises therein; when the vacuum has been reduced to any desired d co, the valve 32 is opened and the deple mixture is forced into the tank 33 at any desired pressure by the pump 30. This depleted mixture, being lower in oxygen and higher in nitrogen than the original mixture, is in some cases itself a valuable commercial peroduct, and in some cases my process may operated primarily for the purpose of producing a high nitrogen mixture, the enriched .mixture containing an excess of oxygen, beingin this case a by-product. Ordinarily, however, the enriched mixture is the principal commercial product sought. After the process has been in operation for some time, the concentration of oxy en in the chamber 15 rises to the desired agree,

and the valve 27 is closed and the valve 37 I is opened. The enriched mixture may then be drawn oil from the chamber 16 by means divided mass m the purpose I theories upon which ber and to slowly above described cycle to be repeated.

Obviously, economical operation of a plant for carrying on my processinvolves the use of a number of concentrators 11, which are used alternately and which may be connected in series with-each other for the purpose of in the concentration. fiI do notlzvishthtgbe undferstood'as connin myse to type 0 apparatus me.- chani cally detailed herein. It will be seenthat my invention involves the conception of. utilizing a magnetic field to concentrate and trap the ox gen molecules out of a gaseous mixture. t further involves the conception of utilizing the finely of paramagnetic material for of concentrating the magnetic field at certain ts and providing a mul-' tiplicity of magnetic fields in each of which the oxygen is retained. It' further involves the'conce ous mixture into in an ionized condition.

I am unable. to explain entirely the mya paratus operates, but I havedted t at it is operative.

I claim as-my invention: f'

1. A procem of concentrating gaseous products in a mixture containing materials of lower 111 Nb] the ionizi sai mixture; ect mixtu rg-tothe action of a mg ionized centrated owing to-its hi magnetic r- Inability; said 531- products in a mixture remainder of said mixture.

on of pa sing the g'asesaid mixture.

e concentrating chamber 'c permeahility, comprising magnetic field wherein said product is magnetimllyl cony hand at centrated portion ofsaid from the remainder of said mixture.

2. A process of X concentrating gaseous containing materials of lower magnetic permeability, comprising: ionizing sai mixture-- passing said ionized mixture into a reinf rced magnetic field wherein said product is magnetically concentrated owing to its higher magnetic permeability; and thereafter isolating said concentrated portion'of said mixture from the 3. A process of concentrating products in a mixture containing of lower ma tic permeability, comprising: ionizing sai mixture; subjecting said ionized mixture to the action ofa magnetic flux in a reinforced magnetic field wherein said product is magnetically concentrated owin to its higher magnetic permeability; an thereafter isolating said concentrated portion of said mixture from the remainder of gaseous materials 4. A process of concentrating gaseous products in a mixture containing materials of lower magnetic permeability comprising: ionizing sai mixtureyexpandr said ionized mixture into a reinforce d magnetic field whereinsaid product is magnetically concentrated'owing to its higher magnetic and thereafter isolating said ooncen portion of said from the remainder of said mixture.

' In teaimon whereof,l hacaaliliereunto g 18 26th day-of July 1928.

: JOHNZ ALLINGHAM. 

